


Hunters and Prey

by MoonshineMadame



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen, Witch Hunters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 06:37:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16867978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonshineMadame/pseuds/MoonshineMadame
Summary: Witches are not real.But what happened to his son is just a little but too peculiar and with the other recent incidents around Greendale...what if he is wrong? What if there are witches out there? And if there are...who are they?Only one family comes to his mind there.The Spellmans.And they will pay for what they did to his son.





	Hunters and Prey

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own 'The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina'.

Mr Kinkel couldn’t remember a time when didn’t get this odd feeling whenever he thought about the Spellman sisters. But again and again, he would put it off. They were running a mortuary, that was all – it was to be expected that they would be a little different, right?

He never gave it any more thought, at least not until his younger son Harvey started spending way too much time with their niece. And when he started dating her, well, Mr Kinkel decided that for now it would be enough for him to ensure his good behaviour by taking the route past the mortuary more often.

Which consequently made him spent more time thinking about the Spellmans. And that was, perhaps, why he recognised what he saw one day as odd without actually realising it.

 

Usually, when he came past their house, he could see the shorter one of the sisters somewhere in the garden – or he heard her and the other one yelling at each other. Occasionally, he could even spot that boy – Adam? No, it was a strange name…. – sitting on the front porch. But that day, the mortuary was dead silent and the only sign of life was the tall one of the sisters – Zelda, of he recalled correctly – violently hitting what looked like a grave with a shovel.

What on earth was she doing? That certainly didn’t look like gardening – from the few times he had actually met her, he also couldn’t imagine that she would voluntarily do anything that could remotely count as physical labour, let alone in her typical attire of some fancy dress and intimidatingly high heels. Why would she ruin those by wearing them in the muddy garden? He used to have a wife and as far as he remembered, most women were quite touchy when it came to shoes…

The rest of the day he couldn’t help but wonder what –or who – made her so angry that she was burying it in the yard. But even though they could probably get away with a body too much at the mortuary without raising any suspicion, Zelda had never stuck him as the murderous type (despite her constant snippy commenting on everything).

Yet when he passed the house the next day and saw both the sisters and the boy talking animatedly on the porch, he was strangely relieved. He was just making things up, that’s all, he admonished himself and the incident slipped his mind.

 

One day, his son came home and started telling him how his girlfriend had been complaining about her aunt’s devotion.

‘Which one?’, he wanted to know with a frown and then had to listen to a long tirade about ‘aunt Zelda’s obsession with her Lord’. He didn’t pay the matter too much attention, let people believe in god if they wanted to – until passed the one church in Greendale a few days later.

All of Greendale came to church at least for mass on Christmas and Easter and he was certain that he never had seen any off the Spellman’s attend either one.

Coming to think of it, he could recall seeing Hilda Spellman cross the street whenever she walked past the church…how odd, especially if they really were as devout as his son claimed. And the next church was in Riverdale, so it was doubtful that they would go there every week –there was, of course, the old church in the woods but it had been abandoned over a century ago and must be crumbled by now. Besides, the place was said to be haunted.

But even though Mr Kinkel thought the entire thing was a little strange, well, it wasn’t his business, right? So he once again let it go and forgot about it.

 

When his younger son started complaining about his girlfriend’s increasingly strange behaviour in the weeks leading up to Halloween and her 16th birthday, he shrugged it off as typical teenage behaviour. But then he remembered the stories his grandfather used to tell him when he was a little boy, about the witches who came out into the Greendale woods on Halloween night for their dark rites.

Those were, of course, nothing but children’s tales but the thought of witches wouldn’t leave his mind for a reason he just couldn’t name. He tried not to think about it until Harvey came home one day after visiting the mortuary and told them during dinner just how _weird_ his girlfriend’s aunts really were.

It made no sense to him at all, there really was no reason or explanation, yet everything in him seemed to scream ‘WITCHES’.

All he could do was shake his head to stop thinking about the stories, about how his forefathers had helped to rid Greendale of the plague that were witches. But surely, he then reasoned with himself, he was just remembering all those things because of his father’s visit for thanksgiving. And perhaps because their hunt in the woods was very suspicious…

 

When his son was buried in the mines, Mr Kinkel was desperate. Oh, he knew he had another son but Harvey was too soft, annoying and generally a disappointment – and absolutely unsuited for the life of a real Kinkel. Tommy though…he had been his pride and so Mr Kinkel drank himself into sweet abyss.

Only for the funeral - no, the _memorial_ , as they didn’t even have a body – he pulled himself together but even that didn’t last long.

Of course, his utterly exasperating son had to mess everything up. AGAIN. But when he wanted to knock some sense into him, he found himself unable to. And who’s fault was that? That blasted Spellman woman’s, Zelda!

Thinking of it, she had even stood there as if she was holding his hand back with a string. An invisible string. Like witchery.

But still, witches were not real – even though it would explain a lot about the Spellmans if they were – and therefore, Mr Kinkel dismissed the thought and stayed as far away from the mortuary as he could.

 

And then, Tommy came back from the mines, all wrong – he wasn’t his son, just an empty shell. His escape from the mines didn’t feel right, nothing did. There was something going on that felt wrong, something like witchery.

The Spellmans.

Perhaps he should pay them a visit….

 

It took a while before he was back to being himself again and just as he finally did, all hell broke loose. Now, he knew he wasn’t the brightest person in the world but Mr Kinkel was quite aware that whatever was going on could only be explained with one thing: MAGIC.

And if there was magic, well, then witches wouldn’t be far.

So he would make sure that they’d pay for what they did to his son. What exactly that had been, he did not know but it was unacceptable and needed to be avenged.

 

Only a few days later, Mr Kinkel had called his entire family – his father, his brothers and his nephews – and of course they came to help him. The old Mr Kinkel was surprisingly knowledgeable when it came to the old family tales about witches and they all wanted to be as thorough as possible.

That his fool of other son had finally broken up with the Spellman girl was just well, this way he was less likely to give them away or get into their way. By the time their plan was good to go, the people of Greendale had started whispering about the Spellmans – that could just be good for them.

After all, they had been behaving even stranger than usual since the night of the ‘tornado’: The girl hadn’t shown up at school the next day - or any day since then – and some had wondered if something had happened to her. But he had seen her once, sitting on the porch with a group of girls in matching dresses and he had almost laughed at the ridiculous white hair and the black lipstick.

But the girl wasn’t even the main focus of the gossip in Greendale. No, that was the baby. Because even the Spellmans, as remote as they might be, couldn’t hide a baby completely. And that brought up the question of where it had suddenly come from and who it’s parents were. Surely it couldn’t be one of the spinster sisters – someone would have noticed that even if they weren’t known for cutting themselves off so completely – and the same was true for the girl. No one that skinny could hide a pregnancy, so that left the boy. But that didn’t seem too likely either, as he never left the house and if the gossip was to be believed he was gay.

But if the Spellmans really were witches, would it be so unlikely that they had stolen a baby? That was, after all, one of the things that witches used to be known for – though for what purpose? And why now? To replace the more or less grown up Sabrina?

They had called the hospitals in both Greendale and Riverdale but no one seemed to miss a baby. Which was just as well, they had probably messed with the peoples’ heads to make them forget.

 

It wasn’t surprising, really, that all the Kinkel men were easily convinced that the Spellmans were a family of witches and it was even less surprising that they had all inherited the hatred against those. So about two weeks after the hurricane their plan was to be set in motion.

First, they had to make sure that no one was at the mortuary so they could sneak in and gather some evidence, something to proof that the Spellmans really were witches. And once they had that, they would call upon the eldest of alliances they had with other Greendale families and make sure that the Spellmans – and all other witches that were there – would be dealt with accordingly.

The old Mr Kinkel had claimed that the only way to get rid of them was to outright kill them – like Greendale already had once before. The younger men had protested – yes, they might be witch hunters but there was still something in them that refused to kill something that looked human. So they had put the actual decision what they would do aside – they could still deal with that when it came to it.

Then there was, of course, the issue of the baby. They had decided that if they came upon it on their proof-gathering, then they would take it – otherwise they would care about that when the entire town stood behind them.

 

It was a bright Monday morning, the air clear and biting cold, when Mr Kinkel, his father and his oldest nephew Johnny watched the mortuary. About half an hour ago, the girl and the boy had left the house and a few minutes later one of the sisters had left, the one who was working at the bookstore. That left the other sister and the baby but they were lucky.

Only a few minutes after they got the call that Hilda was had arrived at the bookstore, her sister stepped out on the porch and pulled the door shut behind herself. Then she strode down the path and disappeared into the woods.

Just to be sure, they waited a few more minutes before they silently agreed that it was either now or never. Like they had agreed, Johnny stayed next to the entrance to keep watch while the two older men ventured into the house.

The kitchen seemed rather unsuspicious, a bit outdated perhaps but nothing screamed ‘witches’ at them. Checking the basement was done quickly, neither of them was too keen on spending much time in the actual mortuary – and though it was just as old-fashioned as the kitchen, it looked like a normal mortuary.

Next they checked the parlour, the dining room and the office, all of which seemed rather normal if dated. Then again, that was probably to be expected in a house as old as the mortuary. They quickly looked over the bookshelves in the parlour but except from holding a lot of old books in different languages they couldn’t find anything strange there either. Not that they had expected that, if one had something to hide it would be reckless to keep the evidence in the most easily accessible rooms.

Perhaps they would have more luck upstairs?

They decided to work from the top floor downwards and that proofed to be a good idea. The attic seemed to be a bedroom and it was crammed with books on all kinds of vile magic: dark rituals, demons and all sorts of things neither of them had ever heard about. It didn’t take them long to take pictures of everything and collect some of the discarded books to take home.

Then they went through the rooms on the second floor, which were mostly empty or used for storage. There was another office that looked like it hadn’t been used recently and two guest rooms, a room that held several wardrobes filled with old cloth but even though they had taken pictures of everything, nothing there hinted towards any otherworldly on-goings.

Last but not least, there was the first floor, which they assumed held the family’s bedrooms. The first one they checked belonged to one of the sisters, probably the shorter one. There was a bookshelf stuffed with penny dreadfuls and some old novels, on the vanity as an alignment of little bottles and vials that had no labels on them and seemed very homemade – but it was no secret that Hilda Spellman’s hand cream was the most popular at the annual Greendale Fair.

Next they looked into what certainly was Sabrina’s room and just like the others, it didn’t seem to be more than a typical teenage room. It was only when they were about to leave it again that Mr Kinkel saw the essay on the desk and realised that it was most definitely not one they the girl had written for any class at Baxter High. The book next to it, with several stickers indicating pages for references, had the catchy title ‘Trapping demons without a full circle’ and when he flicked through it the gruesome images on some pages almost made him sick.

They couldn’t take the essay or the book, of course, so he settled on taking pictures of everything again before moving on to the next room. It seemed to be the nursery, and it honestly didn’t look like the Spellman’s were planning on doing anything sinister with the baby. The room actually looked very nice, even though most of the furniture must be heirlooms that had been passed down through generations. They left the room quickly, there was nothing in there that would help them.

Finally, they reached the last room on the floor, at the very end of the hallway. Since the only bedroom they hadn’t seen yet was the one of the other sister, they assumed this one was hers. But to their surprise they found that the door was locked. That in itself was strange if one considered that not one of the other doors in the house had been locked – only this one.

However, Kinkel men couldn’t be described as entirely stupid so it was probably no shock that unlocking the door with the correct tools was easy.

They had, however, not expected to be faced with an angrily growling bloodhound who seemed about ready to attack them if they moved even the tiniest bit.

Keeping one eye on the dog, Mr Kinkel glanced into the room behind it. It was indeed a bedroom but it wasn’t empty – next to the main bed stood another cradle and from the cradle came the happy gurgling of a baby. Had they really left the child unattended?

Neither men could know, of course, that the baby was as safe as it could be: There were plenty of protection spells placed around both the cradle and the room, the great mirror on the wall was the witch-version of a babyphone and Vinegar Tom, the dog, was a very good babysitter and protector. Besides, Zelda would have never left if she had any doubts about the little girl’s safety – and in case anything happened, transferring home wouldn’t be more trouble than walking through a door.

But the Kinkel men couldn’t possibly know any of that so instead they focused on the problem at hand, the dog. Who was still growling threateningly at them and seemed about ready to attack in case either of them made a sudden movement.

They didn’t know how long they stood there, unmoving all while trying to think of what to do next, when they heard a surprised yelp from downstairs before the house became dead silent again. It could have been hours or seconds and they still stood frozen even though they now had to worry about Johnny as well – and then, all of sudden, the silence was broken by the sharp clicking of heels.

‘Now look at that,’ the cold voice of Zelda Spellman cut through the hall and both men whipped around to stare at her. ‘Would you care to explain to me what exactly you think you are doing here?’

Mr Kinkel glared at her but neither he nor his father graced her with an answer. They wouldn’t, even if she kept glaring at them like that. But when had she come this close?

She slightly tilted her head and the dog, still growling, moved past them and to her side. Behind them, fell shut again and a satisfied smirk spread on her face.

‘Well, if you won’t answer me, then I suppose I will have to think of a way to make you…’

Even though he would never admit it, Mr Kinkel shivered at the tone of her voice. It was…unsettling and suddenly he wondered if coming here had been such a great idea. But then he remembered what they had done to Tommy and he straightened his back again. He would not bow to a witch, never.

Unfortunately for the Kinkels, Zelda was a rather formidable witch and had, unbeknownst to them of course, been part of more than enough witch-hunts before. So if was fair to say that when it came to dealing with hunters, she knew how to take care of herself.

Which was everything but true for the Kinkels. Yes, they were from an old family of witch hunters, a family who had been in the profession for centuries but in reality, well, not one of them had ever truly hunted anything but game. All they knew about witches and how to deal with them was what they knew from diluted stories and none of those had ever mentioned anything about what to do if you were cornered by a witch like this.

They weren’t quite sure how they got there but they suddenly found themselves in the mortuary, bound on chairs next to an unconscious Johnny. Now the room didn’t seem as innocent anymore, the shiny instruments and the smell making them think of all the things that could happen down here and no one would ever know about them. But perhaps it was just their imagination, inspired by that unsettling smile on the witch’s face.

And that she was a witch was clear without a doubt now. The only question was what they would do with that knowledge – or how far she was willing to go to keep it secret.

 

‘Now, gentlemen,’ Zelda starts in a mocking voice and leans casually against one of the examination tables. ‘Will one of you tell me what you are doing in my house? No? As far as I know, trespassing is against you law so unless one of you speaks up now, I shall go and call the police.’

‘We won’t tell you anything, _WITCH_ ,’ Mr Kinkel Sr. spat but Zelda just hummed. That, Mr Kinkel thought, was far more disconcerting than her threats. Only after a few moments of watching her he realised that she had not denied that she was …

‘So you really are a witch,’ he stated and she turned to look at him – was that amusement in her eyes?

‘Is that a question?’

‘No…Yes?’ He wasn’t even sure how they ended up like this and he just hoped that his brothers would realise soon that something was off and come looking. All they could do for now, though, was make sure that Zelda Spellman wouldn’t kill them.

He had to redo his previous assessment of her, the one from weeks ago when he thought that she was all bark and no bite. Sitting here, being at her mercy…there was something in the way she looked at them that made one thing quite clear: She would not hesitate to kill them if she had to. His father seemed to have sensed the same thing because even he tried keep calm.

‘I’m getting impatient, Mr Kinkel. Why are you here?’ Her blue eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them and suddenly Mr Kinkel couldn’t stop himself.

‘What have you done to my son?’ he burst out and somehow even managed to sound more angry than intimidating.

Zelda didn’t react like he expected. Granted, he had expected her to get mad and angry so when she just rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation, yes, he was very surprised and frowned at her. What was even more surprising, though, was that Zelda saw his expression and started talking. Not without rolling her eyes again, of course.

‘I’m very sorry for what happened to your son. He died that day in the mines and he should have stayed dead. Unfortunately, someone made a misguided attempt to help and saw it fit to use a resurrection spell on him. Which went as wrong as it can possibly go.’

The Kinkel man stared at her, unsure what to make of this revelation. But she took the decision from them when she whirled around and lit a cigarette that she pulled out of the pocket of her blazer. When she turned to look at them again, the the impassible expression had returned to her face.

‘Now that I had the curtesy of answering your question, you will answer mine. What do you want?’

‘We want prove that you are _WITCHES,_ show the town what abominations you are and ten have you on trial in front of everyone.’

It was the older Mr Kinkel who spoke and his voice was so full of hatred that even Zelda seemed taken aback for a moment. But then she blinked and took a breath from her cigarette and when she spoke again she sounded just as icy as before.

‘And what will you have us on trial for?’

‘Being witches. Murder. Bringing back the dead. Tampering with our heads, holding us hostage here – ‘

‘I seem to recall that you were the one who broke into my house, Mr Kinkel. Be glad that you are still breathing- ‘

‘-and of course, stealing children.’

Zelda froze at those words and before either of them could blink, she was right in front of them, her face only inches from the old man’s.

‘What did you just say?’ she hissed and for the first time, he smirked. He had her now, had finally gotten the upper hand.

‘That sweet little child upstairs…you stole it, didn’t you? For one of your dark rites, so you can kill her and – ‘

He stopped abruptly when Zelda suddenly started laughing. It was weird, unsettling and even stranger was that when she finally caught herself again, the smile on her face was extremely smug.

‘You think we would sacrifice a precious child? That innocent baby up there, she has been put in our care for her own safety. And anyone who tries to harm her won’t know what wrath will await them.’

There was no way to mistake the threat in her words and Mr Kinkel had to suppress an annoyed groan. Whenever they thought they were getting somewhere, she made it clear again that she was just playing with them like a cat with her prey. Which was ironic, really. They were supposed to be the hunters and the witches the hunted but at one point the tables had turned and there was nothing they could do about it.

‘Now what am I going to do with you?’ Zelda mused but before anyone could even think of an answer they heard the door close and quick steps above them.

‘Zelda?’

‘Downstairs!’

The door opened and from the corner of his eyes Mr Kinkel could see the figure of the other Spellman sister enter. She froze for a moment while she took in the scene before her but Zelda’s eyes were still fixed on them.

‘We seem to have guests, Hilda,’ Zelda said when her sister finally descended down the stairs.

‘I see. What, eh, why are they here?’ she asked somewhat tentatively as she stepped next to Zelda.

‘They wanted to gather _proof_ that we are witches. And they wanted to steal our little darling upstairs.’

‘Oh…I see.’

That was all, nothing more. And yet, the little reaction from Hilda Spellman was almost as scary as Zelda’s threats. Hilda was well-known in town for being friendly and kind, the sort of person everyone got along with – the opposite from her sister who preferred to lock herself into the mortuary rather than go out.

So even Mr Kinkel, who only knew about witches and magic from old stories, had unintentionally set Hilda aside as harmless. Now though they thought that maybe, just maybe, he had been wrong about her too. Oh, she was without doubt less violent than her sister but the moment Zelda had mentioned that they tried to get to the baby, her eyes had hardened.

Suddenly, Johnny stirred on his seat and Hilda was by his side right away.

‘Are you alright, love?’ She glared at her sister. ‘What have you done to him?’

‘Nothing – I hit him with a book. Not nearly as effective as a shovel or a hammer but mortals are so terribly fragile.’

‘He’ll be fine then, I guess,’ Hilda muttered and stepped back to take up her place next to Zelda again. They both looked at the two older men, their heads slightly tilted and the silence became unbearable to Mr Kinkel quickly. He carefully cleared his throat and immediately two pairs of eyes fixed on him.

‘What?’

‘If we don’t get back soon, our family will come looking for us,’ he stated and even though he wouldn’t admit it, he did sound much more confident than he felt. They were chained to chairs in a mortuary and at the mercy of two angry witches, for Christ’s sake, he was allowed to be a little frightened.

‘I say we just kill them and bury them in the yard. The Cain pit could do with some new blood to moisten the soil – ‘

‘We can’t them, Zelds, people will come looking. We could make them forget?’ Hilda suggested but Zelda rolled her eyes.

‘And risk them coming back? No…if we have to let them go…I want to make sure that none them will ever get any funny ideas again.’

‘Just don’t hurt them, will you?’

‘Must you always take the fun from everything?’

‘Zelda!’

‘Oh, fine,’ Zelda huffed and finally returned her attention to the men.

‘Thank my sister and her endless heart that you’ll be able to leave on your own. But rest assured, if only one of you, a single witch hunter, comes only remotely close to our grounds, I will personally make sure that he’ll never go anywhere again. And if we hear of even the faintest talk about witches in Greendale, know that we will do everything needed to stop that. Permanently.’ She leaned down to them, so close that they could even smell her sweet perfume, and looked them straight in the eye.

‘Have I made myself clear?’

‘Crystal,’ the oldest Kinkel spat and Mr Kinkel and Johnny – only half lucid – both nodded.

‘Very well then. Off you go.’ And then, with a wave of her hand, Hilda loosened their ties and they scrambled to their feet, pulled Johnny up between them and then fled the house as fast as they could without looking back.

 

‘We will get them, son. They can’t hide in that house forever, we just have to wait until they leave,’ their father explained when they all got back and sat in the Kinkel’s living room.

‘And we still have all those pictures you took, they’ll be enough proof to at least make people think about the possibility of the Spellman’s being witches,’ one of Mr Kinkel’s brothers added. ‘We should look at them, see which ones we can use.’

They were all in for a nasty surprise.

 

Because while the Kinkels were – of course – not heeding Zelda’s warning, neither of the two sisters had wanted to leave anything to chance.

They had indeed put wards up around the entire grounds of the mortuary that would expel every Kinkel-man except Harvey, who still had his place in Sabrina’s heart, had informed an outraged High Priest of the incident and had, with a quick spell while they were leaving, removed all the pictures and the other ‘proof’ from their…visitors.

After that, Hilda had made a pot of calming tea while Zelda finally went up to tend to the baby and then they just sat there in silent company for hours.

When Sabrina and Ambrose returned from the academy they had immediately known that something was wrong and though neither Hilda nor Zelda would tell them any details, they quickly found out what had transpired. And were outraged about it but what could they do?

‘What we have always done, Sabrina,’ Zelda said calmly and looked at her niece. ‘We will stand strong and united as a family, hopefully with the Coven behind us, and face whatever may come with dignity. If they want a witch-hunt, then a witch-hunt they shall get. But no one can say that we didn’t warn them.’

 

And that was that.

The Kinkels were quite unhappy with the outcome of their great plan but even they realised that for now, there wasn’t much they could do. So they decided to let it go for the time being and wait until the Spellmans felt safe again before striking.

And so Greendale went on with the slow days like always, completely unaware of the horror that just passed them.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that was a lot.  
> I really hope you enjoyed this, I would love to hear what you think :)  
> This is perhaps the story I have worked on longest yet, at least in this fandom. I started writing down the idea right when I finished caos: 'What if Mr Kinkel figures out that the Spellmans are witches?'  
> And then I started writing and it ended up getting longer and longer and longer and eventually I had Zelda and Hilda in a story that wasn't even meant to be about them...but I'm not complaining, I didn't go into this with a plan, so when they decided to show up, who am I to send them away again? :)


End file.
